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Congratulations to the fine folks at Mobility Concepts of Fife, Washington. Their submission of photos from Microsoft in Redmond, Washington has earned the the Garaventa Lift Project of the Month for February, 2018.

Treehouse Gains Accessibility

Microsoft has rigged up three high tech treehouses for employees to work and meet in up in Redmond’s Pacific Northwest Douglas firs. The elaborate meeting rooms were built by Pete Nelson, host of the TV show Treehouse Masters.

Two-stop Genesis Vertical Platform Lift

The treehouses are a part of Microsoft’s “outdoor districts” which are connected to buildings around its Redmond campus. The company built the treehouses after a recent employee survey found many workers would like to work outdoors more if they could. A Garaventa, Genesis, VPL, was included in the design allowing for two of the three treehouses to be accessible to all employees.

Congratulations to Adam Bey, Henry Handel, Tony Bey and the rest of the gang at Handel & Sons Elevator of Kent, Ohio. Their submission of photos from the historic Garfield Building in Downtown Cleveland has earned them their first Garaventa Lift Project of the Month. The Garfield Building was built in 1898, and is so named because the edifice was built by the two sons of President James Garfield. In 2015, the building was in the news again as chunks of the decorative exterior fell off and smashed in to a parked Toyota minivan. Thankfully, nobody was injured. Since then, it has undergone extensive renovations and is now an upscale multi-unit residential building.

The application showcases a very common accessibility solution where the floor-to-floor travel distance is less than five feet. The product used is a Garaventa Genesis Opal, model GVL-OP-42. The lift is floor-mounted with an autofold ramp at the lower landing for access to the platform. The lower landing call station is located clear of the door swing to make it easy to use. It is the standard color of satin grey along with champagne anodized aluminum components.

The lift is also equipped with several optional features, including laminated glass panels in both gates, powered gate operators, braille push buttons, courtesy lights and a hands-free emergency telephone.

Our congratulations and appreciation go out to Tom Sena, Neil Hankin, Brian Trueman, David Lair and the rest of the great team at Hankin Specialty Elevator of Rancho Cordova, California. Their submission of photos from a new business park in South San Francisco, California has earned them another Garaventa Lift Project of the Month, this one for November, 2017.

The installation is a beautiful example of modern accessibility to a open mezzanine area using a Genesis Enclosure vertical platform wheelchair lift. The lift is a fully code-compliant accessibility solution, easy to use and practical. The model being used is a Genesis Enclosure GVL-EN-144, mounted in a 3″ pit to allow for level access at the lower landing. Everything about the lift is pretty standard, except that the architect chose to have the lift painted an optional RAL color (RAL 9003).